In 1802, Wordsworth wrote: "The child is father to the man." In 2019, the phrase has added meaning: Greta Thunberg, at 16, has shown us a clarity of thought and purpose that puts world leaders to shame and she has inspired young people to speak out and to take action through school strikes.

The recent naming of the 16-year-old child who murdered six-year-old Alesha MacPhail on the Isle of Bute raises once more very uncomfortable issues about the naming of child defendants in criminal cases.

In 1939, George Orwell wrote: "We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." Orwell was reflecting on the nature of power at the end of a decade that had witnessed widespread human misery.